


Oddities

by AnaVakarian



Series: Beyond reason [6]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Alien Culture, Alien/Human Relationships, Aliens, Developing Relationship, Evfra is sweet, F/M, Jaal/Liam (minor), Late Night Conversations, M/M, Odd, POV First Person, Present Tense, Relationship(s), protocol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25914052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnaVakarian/pseuds/AnaVakarian
Summary: Unsecure about the angaran protocol during an upcoming event, Sara decides to ask Jaal for help. However, the conversation turns into a comparison of alien 'odd' etiquette rituals and traditions with her whole squad that doesn't solve her issue at all.
Relationships: Evfra - Relationship, Evfra de Tershaav & Female Ryder | Sara, Evfra de Tershaav/Female Ryder | Sara
Series: Beyond reason [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1639225
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40





	Oddities

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language so don't be surprised if the grammatical construction is a bit 'odd'. I'll try to do my best and if anyone wants to point out any mistakes, it would be appreciated :)  
> It's also my first attempt in first person pov and present after a very long time writing in third and past, so there might be tons of errors! hahaha  
> ***  
> Another idea that had been lingering in my brain for too long. Odd angaran traditions! If you think deeply of it... we have so many weird stuff going on here, culturally speaking...

“Jaal?” I shout entering the cargo bay, my question laced with unequivocal enquiry echoing on the walls. It’s the same tone I always use when I have questions about angaras. Particularly, about one of them. 

“Yes, Sara?” his voice booms in Liam’s - and his - bedroom. 

So, my feet take me on a slow pace there, my lips pursed into a thin line and my brow furrowed deeply. I enter the bedroom not before bumping into the door frame, as absently as my tangled mind is.

“Auch!” I say, hesitancy momentarily forgotten to rub at my sore arm. I glare at the door frame as if all it had attacked me on purpose. 

Next thing I heard is Jaal chuckle, coming from the sofa. “Anything I can help you with?” he asks, as cheerful as always, putting aside one of Liam’s comics.

I smiled at him and at his kind tone, and his willingness to always give me a hand untangling the more-than-complex angaran relationship I’ve gotten myself into. “Yes, please Jaal. I just… Everything is still really new to me. I don’t want to screw it up.”

The purple alien shifts on the sofa with an acknowledging smile and pats the empty space next to him, so I sit there with a tired sigh. And, while doing so, I think to myself that I have never ever been this… _insecure_ regarding relationships. But there are many things at stake. First and foremost, our own happiness. To be honest, I have to admit that I’m really glad to have him here and willing to help. 

And, at the end of the day, he was as friend of Evfra as he was mine.

“Shoot!”

“The Moshae has just sent me this thing… Have you seen it?” I tinker a bit with my omnitool until I open the same email that contains the party invitation on Aya, written in Shelesh in a perfect - I guess - calligraphy and Jaal leans closer to read it, muttering the words as he does. 

I can’t avoid looking at how tall he is. Even sitting down and towers over me and my held-out arm, all beautiful purple skin and pink white-ish freckles and I allow myself the pleasure of taking a deep breath, smelling him just a bit: sweet species and a flowery undertone. And I grin stupidly when my mind automatically recalls the also intoxicating scent of Evfra, intense wood notes and less sweet, probably matching his personality. 

Or as a warning. 

“I just want to know what the protocol is for the event… in my case,” I say, shyly. 

His starry eyes open widely before gazing into mine without understanding. “What do you mean?”

I deliberately point to the bottom bit of the message mentioning some tangled information about matching colours and couples. Translated into human language? Angaran oddities and boring etiquette. But expectation has to be met. And he just flickers his eyes through it again and looks back up at me. 

Without any words at all, Jaal just shakes his head and shrugs holding my stare, a blank expression on his face and, surprisingly, even on his bioelectricity. And I sink deeper in the sofa with an exasperated groan. 

“Ey, look at this! The infamous Pathfinder’s here! What do we owe the honour to?” Peebee and Liam have just arrived in the bedroom, at the same exact time that Jaal takes advantage of the momentary distraction and sneaks out with a mumbled excuse about reports, not before giving a quick smooch to Liam. 

“You seem _a bit blue_ today, Ryder,” Peebee mentions with a motherly tone before snickering at her own joke. After the pun that has me staring at her with narrowed eyes, she sits heavily on next to me and lifts her feet onto the old-dated and chipped coffee table in front of us. “Do you want a beer?”

Liam scoffs and the asari throws an open and glimmery smile at him. “Peebs, last time I checked this was still _my_ room, and they were _my_ beers, not yours…”

“Yeah, well, but she needs it. Have you seen her face?”

“Still not a good excuse.” However, the human walks to the fridge and grabs three bottles of the Initiative issued ales that taste like shit but always give us some sort of normality into our lives and a good excuse to gather together and talk. 

I grab my bottle and lean back on the sofa, retrieving that damn email once again. “Have you received the invitation, too?” I ask, showing them the main issue of my concerns.

Peebee thrills at the mention of it, obviously excited. “Yes! OMG, is gonna be such a good night! Our first angaran party ever!”

Liam has a long sip before speaking his opinion. “Yes! I think it’ll be awesome. Is this Saturday, isn’t it?” But, when he sees my thoughtful and extremely serious expression, he also adds. “You don’t want to come?”

“No… Yes! I mean… Of course, I do. Is this thing with the etiquette…”

Peebee retrieves his invitation on her omnitool and searches through the rather-heavy documents the angara blessed us with about their culture, history, customs and government once we got on good terms with them. “Drinking and eating… Sitting next to… Greeting authorities… Dress code… Ah! Here it is. It’s actually quite straight forward: _couples will wear matching colours. No couples don’t have to_. That’s it! Quite clear, indeed.”

Involuntarily, I cock an eyebrow at her with my deepest sarcastic face and Liam seems to have enough empathy to understand my problem. “Oh! Ah! Are you two together or…?”

“I don’t know!” I scream in exasperation. “I have not a single clue! I told him I’d give him time. Then, something happened...” both of them smirk at me, perfectly aware of where in the ship the Resistance leader had ‘slept’ during the trip back from Voeld. “But then we had to go to Kadara and Havarl. I haven’t seen him for a month and, yes, we have spoken, but nothing about _us_ was mentioned at all!” It feels really good to vent all that out of myself and Peebee and Liam just stare at me with mild condescendence. “What should I do? Should I ask him what colour is he wearing, or not? I don’t want to rush things because I don’t want to overwhelm him! But this seems to be bloody important even if stupid!”

If anyone back in the Milky Way would have told me that my main concern in a whole new galaxy regarding a new alien sapient species would be matching outfits I would have probably laughed straight on their face. 

And, yet, here I am.

“Have you asked Jaal?”

“Yes… and he weaselled out of the conversation...”

Right then, Vetra made her way into the room. “I was sure I heard voices. Mind if I join you?” She grabbed one of the chairs in the corner and dragged it closer to the debate. “Who are we bitching about?”

Liam turned around on his chair and stretched as much as he could without standing, reaching for the fridge to grab a beer for the turian. 

“Oh! Nothing exciting. Just this thing of matching colours angara do if they’re banging...” Peebee supplies.

I frown, a bit offended. “We’re not banging!” Everyone gave me a smirk and a sceptical look. “Ok, we’re banging. But there’s more behind it.”

“It’s not the weirdest thing I’ve heard of, anyway. We have this thing in Thessia. Protocol stuff or tradition, whatever you want to call it. When you go to a party with your mate, whoever they are at the moment, they cannot interact with anyone else unless you introduce them first.”

The whole group looks at the blue asari with surprise and she seems more than happy to gather all the attention. 

“Why the heck not?” Liam asks with a frown.

“I think it’s a sort of territoriality thing although most likely is just domination: _you’re not allowed to talk to them unless I allow you to_.” She mocked a low harsh tone for the line and everyone around showed a sceptical face. 

“Are you being serious? I always thought that you were a possessive and bossy species, but nothing like that.” Vetra swallows her surprise with a sip of dextro-ale.

“Now you know, you understand more about us being on top of the Citadel council, right?” 

“What about you, Vetra? Is there anything odd with your etiquette?”

“Well… I’m trying to think of the weird stuff… You know about the clan marks right? And the bite on the neck to mark your mate? Oh, wait! I’ve got a good one.” She leans forwards, creating some secrecy around ourselves, like if what she was about to tell us was one of the deepest turian secrets in the galaxy. “Your partner, whoever they are at the moment, is not allowed to appear in any family pictures until your second anniversary.”

I cocked an eyebrow, looking up at her. 

“May we ask why?”

“Well… I’m sure you know that turians… I’m not gonna say that we’re promiscuous, but our idea of sex perhaps is quite different than the other species think. A bit more open. Although once we mate, we do it forever. So, that etiquette was adopted to be able to look at your family moments without seeing a terrible reminder of who you were with during that stage of your life as sometimes they’re quite… transitory.”

“Oh! Well, that's useful, indeed. I wish I would have done that.” Liam burst into laughter and I can’t help but snicker. 

“Me too. Although the one that always brought a bunch of awkward girlfriends to the family was my brother, not me.”

Vetra interrupted their conversation to add more. “Also, everyone says that turians are very… touchy? To put it that way. Just when we find our mates, we are really keen on showing public affection.”

“Wait, what do you mean by _public affection_?” Peebee asks with a sly smile, quoting the words with her fingers.

“Spirits! Not that! Just nuzzling, bringing our foreheads together… You know. Those sorts of things…”

“Oh, Vetra! That is actually very sweet! I didn’t know that was a turian thing!” I say. 

The asari now has a delighted smile and dreamy eyes, staring at the turian in awe.

“See it to believe it…” Liam mumbled under his breath. 

Until a rough voice booms in the small and crowded quarters. “What sort of secret meeting is this and why haven't I been invited?” Drack makes his way in, dodging Liam’s and Vetra’s chair to get to the sofa and sit heavily in between Peebee and me. At his weight, the cushion gives in, and Peebee and I collapse closer to him. Immediately, the krogan makes a disdainful flick of his hands in a clear ‘give me some space’ and shoos us away from him.

“What do I have to do to get one of those beers?”

“For the goddess, Drack, you’re all manners, aren’t you?” Vetra laughs while Liam stretches backwards on an impossible angle to get another beer from the fridge without standing: the last one.

His little krogan eyes glimmer with the offering. 

“We’re discussing couple traditions and etiquette in our home worlds. Odd and stupid ones mostly.”

“And why Sara looks constipated?” Drack asks with a light tone, making everyone else, except me, burst into laughter. 

“Fuck off, you all,” I exhort, jokingly. 

“Ok, stop with the turians. Don’t you have any weird stuff on Earth? I don’t want to think we are the only odd ones…” Vetra tries to divert the attention towards another species. 

Liam and I cross glances and he makes a little gesture with his hand, letting me begin. “Yeah, well… There’s this thing about the ring… When you propose someone, you have to give them a ring. But just the one who actually asks. Don’t ask me why, though. Then, once you’re married, you both wear a matching ring, like indicating property. Or like the bite marks for turians,” I explain, tilting my head to Vetra.

Liam grabs a hold on the conversation, then. “And speaking about marriages, there’s also this very funny tradition… When a couple is getting married we celebrate stag dos and hen parties. Like a sort of ‘goodbye single life, welcome to hell’.

“I don’t get it. Do you party with stags and hens?” Vetra asks, bewildered.

“No. That’s just the name.”

“Do you hunt them?”

“No Drack…”

“Do you eat them?”

“No, Drack! it’s just the name we use for them. I don’t know why!” Liam retorts with exasperation.

“I don’t get it, then,” the krogan ends with a puzzled face, leaning back and drinking.

“It’s something about only females and only males sort of parties depending if you’re on the bride or the groom's side. Because those animals represented the sexes when it was invented. It’s a language thing and it has nothing to do with the animals at all,” I explain, trying to pull out my buried knowledge about that tradition.

“That’s not very inclusive.” Vetra opines, frowning with disapproval.

“Things have changed quite a lot now,” Liam supplies, being himself a good example.

“But it sounds the hell of fun. We should throw one when Sara and Evfra get married.”

At her comment, I choke on the beer and I spit it through my nose, making everyone laugh. “Rushing things a bit, aren’t you, Peebs?” I complain, drying my ruined white t-shirt with my hand.

“Why didn't you say Liam and Jaal’s?” Vetra enquiries.

“Because it’s funny to see her reactions when we mention Evfra at all,” the damned asari gloats, laughing smugly.

“You all like making things complex… The best way krogan have to show their love is headbutting. When you like someone, you headbutt them. When you want sex, headbutt. When you are angry, headbutt harder. Even when you’re in love, headbutt twice.”

“Drack, I think, and I’m speaking on behalf of everyone here, that that is the softest and most romantic thing you have said during this whole time we have been together in the Tempest,” I joked.

The krogan turns with some difficulty to face me on the sofa. “Perhaps you should headbutt Evfra, too. He’s strong. And, as stubborn as you are, he’ll appreciate it.” Drack suggests, making me flinch at the thought of that situation actually happening. 

“I’ll think of it… Thanks.”

After some more minutes drinking, laughing and joking about everything in life, I just stand up, ready to carry on with my duties in a more relaxed way. “Well, not that you have helped me at all in solving this issue, but I had a good time. And I think I’m gonna follow Drack’s advice and _headbutt_ the situation as soon as we land in Aya.”

“That’s my girl. Straight to tackle him down.”

“That can have so many meanings, Drack…” Liam mutters.

“And all of them intended, indeed.”

I pretend not to hear any of them. “In the meantime… I’m gonna see if I can find any of the undersuits that mysteriously disappeared last week… Who the heck did the last washing?” I blurt out, leaving Liam and Jaal’s quarters and heading to the kitchen in pursuit of my missing clothes.

That ship is a mess.

But it is my mess.

And I love each of my days there.

***

I can hardly repress the rush of nervousness that blooms in my stomach when Kallo announces that we have finally landed on Aya. It has been more than one month from our mission on Voeld - and all that it brought with it, including two long nights of amazing sex and two even more fantastic mornings of waking up in a knot of beige and blue limbs. The soft caress of his bioelectricity over my skin while kissing before getting ready for the day is still fresh in my memory and it brings a foolish grin to my lips.

And, then, we went back to real life: negotiations on Aya, an urgent rescue mission on Kadara and investigations on Havarl… They had kept us both busy and obviously apart despite the messages that had been flowing between us at the end of the days.

Wondering if perhaps I should text Evfra and ask if he’s free for dinner - my fingers already flickering over the omnitool interface - I didn’t notice the broad figure right at the bottom of the ramp until I bumped into his chest.

“Shit! I… I’m sorry!” I stutter in surprise, my hand holding for balance on a worked-out chest before I hear a muffled scoff coming from him.

“You’re not in your highest perception today, Pathfinder.”

Warmth spreads along my skin from the hand over his body and I can feel the heat creeping on my cheeks too at the recognition of the voice. Lowering my hand down, my eyes focus on the chest of the angara that is still an inch apart from me, aquamarine _rofjinn_ wrapped loosely around his neck. 

The retort comes swiftly to my lips. “Perhaps I was not expecting to deal with such a hard resistance right after setting foot on Aya, _sunshine_ ,” I say, meeting his eyes.

He smells nice, like a summer night, and I’m surprised by the relaxing effect his scent has on me. His lips are pursed into that sexy smirk, the scarred tip of them twisted up. But his eyes… If I have to choose a part of him that really takes the breath out of me, I would definitely pick his ocean blue eyes and the longing that I see on them at this moment. 

“What are you doing here?” I asked, a bit confused and stepping back reluctantly.

“I heard you were landing. One of the privileges of being in charge of the permits to visit Aya.”

I raise an eyebrow at his words. “After all we’ve been through together and I still require your permission to land here?”

He smiles just a bit with the sarcasm and it makes me melt. Perhaps _dibellen_ _is_ the correct word after all. 

As he doesn’t seem interested in giving me a reply, I carried on with my plan, all my confidence back. “I was about to ask you if you were busy tonight.” 

And it’s a surprise that Evfra seems a little hesitant at my words. “I’d be delighted. In truth, I cleared up my evening so I don’t have to go back to the Resistance until tomorrow…” 

“Oh, wow… So you’re all mine, then?” I mention in a flirty tone and a sly grin.

His eyes dart up to mine and his bioelectricity wraps us with such intensity that I can feel tickles in my tongue. 

“As long as you can reciprocate,” he smugly says, taking a little step forwards.

If I keep staring at him as I'm doing in the middle of the crowded port of Aya with lots of curious eyes focused on us, we will be on everyone’s lips by the end of the day. “Shall we go somewhere else more... private? All that I can feel the piercing stare of very jealous angara glaring at me,” I joked, making him chuckle.

“Actually… I was hoping to give you this first.” Lifting his hand slightly, Evfra shows me a medium-sized package beautifully laced with an orange ribbon. 

The prospect of a present suddenly makes my heart flutter in my stomach. “What is it?” I ask, eager, gazing back up at him with a glowing glee.

“Tempest. Not here,” he orders, a hint of his gruff voice back. 

Well, at least he hasn’t lost his touch.

Once we are back in the cargo bay, Evfra gives me the package and explains with a soft fondness. “We have this event on Saturday and I was not sure if you were aware of our traditions for these sort of… things. So I bought you this.”

I’m perfectly aware of how puzzled I look when I put the box on a crate and untie the ribbon with all the care I’m able to. Once I remove the lid, a soft white tissue paper is wrapping something inside that slides, shiny and silky, on my fingers in an aquamarine tone.

My eyes open wide and I stare at him when I understand what it is. 

“It’s a dress…” I managed, still perplexed. 

A silk turquoise dress, matching his _rofjinn_. 

“I hope you like it. And I hope it fits you. The truth is that the dressmaker had a hard time with your measures and your… human shapes.” 

Evfra’s eyes dart towards my chest with a raised eyebrow on an unnecessary clarification of his words and his bluntness makes me burst into laughter. 

“I just love it, Evfra. I was not sure if you wanted to… You know. Make _this_ public.” 

“To be sincere, I had to weight it up for a little while. But I don’t have any doubts about it now, Sara. If you’re ok with it too.”

The smile his honesty draws in my lips speaks alone and he mirrors it when I step forwards to pull down at his _rofjinn_ and kiss him. His strong arms circle my waist without preambles and I just get lost on the feeling of our bodies together. 

Our kiss is sweet but firm and speaks about security, dreams and belonging. Because, at last, something in that damn galaxy seems to work out as it should.

Until a random thought pops into my mind, making me pull back and frown in confusion. “Wait, a dressmaker? Where did you get my measures from?”

“Ehm… Jaal might have helped me a bit with that. I have to confess that he _borrowed_ some of your clothes.”

I rolled my eyes, suddenly understanding his whole behaviour when I asked him about the topic some days ago. And, also, the mystery of my missing undersuit has finally been solved.

“Sneaky twat…” I mutter, mocking indignancy before getting myself lost into his lips again.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to leave kudos if you liked it. Or if you want more ❤❤❤  
> ***  
> Follow me on Tumblr  
> [AnaVakarian](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/anavakarian)


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